MAP12: Speed (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP12: Speed is the twelfth map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Milo Casali and uses the music track "Facing The Spider" from Doom.

Essentials
Leaving the starting point will cause six imps to raise out of the ground. After passing through the first door go east, fall into the pit and climb the stairs in the north to the yellow skull key. Continue upstairs to a narrow alley from which you can jump to the teleporter pad placed in the huge throne-like structure. Turn north and west through the tunnel, behind the windowed structure that faces the initial door, to the other pit and fall to the platform with the teleporter. This one leads to the yellow key door, behind which is a switch that opens a door south-west of the pit. Return via the same teleporter to that area, then first jump to the red skull key on the big square pedestal from the next higher ledge. Take the elevator up to the south-western part and follow the stairs in the west up and down, to grab the blue skull key from the window sill.

Upon heading back you will be immediately teleported to the south-eastern part of this area with four alcove structures. Each structure contains one button to lower wooden bars in the southernmost area. Jump back in the pit and take the lift again, this time turn south and east to the last large pit. To finish the level you have to press several buttons that raise bridges to get to various sides of the pit and, after all are activated, to reach the exit.

Secrets

 * 1) After getting the yellow skull key and jumping to the teleporter in the throne-like structure, turn south and jump down to a wider tunnel. Halfway this tunnel is a teleporter that takes you to an otherwise unreachable ledge leading to a soul sphere. (sector 32)
 * 2) From the south-western part around the western pit, press the gargoyle-faced switch overlooking the pit. It will open a  teleporter right next to it that returns to the center of the map, and another one at the top of the stairs that lead to the blue key. Take this second teleporter to arrive in a secret area with a combat armor. (sector 77)

Bugs

 * This level cannot be played in deathmatch, because there are no deathmatch starts. This bug is not present in an alternate version of PLUTONIA.WAD found on a specific version of the id Anthology.
 * One of the sound blocking linedefs in the central room after the starting area does not work as intended. As a result, firing a shot in that room will wake up most of the monsters in the eastern and southern portion of the map. This happens because the sector situated directly behind the sound blocking linedef (fourth step of the eastern stairs of the room) is merged with a sector in the western portion of the room that is located directly in front of a sound blocking linedef. Since merged sectors act like one sector and share all the same properties, sound registered by the western part of the merged sector is now also registered by the eastern part of that merged sector (behind the sound blocking linedef) from where it can propagate outwards into the eastern portion of the map and wake up the monsters. Because of this oversight, the sound blocking linedef, despite being setup correctly, does not fulfill its function as its effect is simply circumvented.

Routes and tricks

 * It is possible to finish the map with a rocket jump combined with an arch-vile jump. The specialty of this trick is that you will die during the performance, but you can land exactly on the exit which is enough to complete the map.
 * In the south-western part of the south-eastern pit the switch that makes the bridge leading to the exit can be flipped without raising it from the land. However if you don't know where the switch exactly is, it would be harder to activate it.

Current Compet-n records
The Compet-n records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 6, 2020.

Current DSDA records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on June 1, 2022.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: